Friday, 15 February 2013

A step in the right direction

Once again, it's been a few weeks since the last entry...so immediately, I should apologise for that to some extent. But then again, I always think about how I don't really want an overkill on this, and if I post on here for the sake of posting something...well, it's just not that interesting. Or at the very least, it isn't as interesting as it could be. At the end of the day, it's all a matter of perspective. Life in Germany is still going relatively well. I set myself the personal goal at the start of the year to get out there, do a bit more with my life and make the most of the time I've got out here. If I'm honest, the first few months were probably a little bit of a write-off. Work was good and I had a couple of good trips to see friends and do some things...but that was it really. I could have done more, I should have done more, and I went home at Christmas thinking that things could have been a bit better.So when I came back, I figured I needed to do a little bit more and throw myself into doing more with my time. A month and a half into the new year, I'd like to think I've done just that. There was the trip to Leipzig which I touched on in the previous entry and then I've done some pretty good things on the other weekends to keep me busy. I checked out the Hamburger Motorrad Tage at the Messenhalle a few weeks ago, which was basically just a giant gathering of bike lovers from around Northern Germany. And anyone who is anyone in terms of brands in the biking world was there. For me, the fascination with bikes has never been as big as the love of cars...mainly since cars have always been there, whether through me watching motorsport or just seeing cars in magazines and on TV shows. Wandering the hall for a couple of hours and seeing all of the bikes was amazing, and I was able to talk to one or two people about bikes and see what people liked. Even if I never ride a motorbike, I can say I've sat on three Triumphs. That'll probably do for me.I also got the opportunity to check out a HSV game thanks to some very friendly people at work. In short, there was a little treat set up to reward a group of the team who had played a large part in organising an event last month...the treat being tickets to a fancy lounge to watch HSV take on Eintracht Frankfurt. Someone fell out, and two of the team put my name forward as someone who they thought deserved it as a reward for my work. First of all, that in itself is pretty cool to see that the people at work think I'm doing a good enough job to tell me this, and also set me up for cool opportunities like this.

Off I went, and though my interest in football isn't that strong at the best of times and I recognised one name on the HSV team sheet, it was a cracking evening. The game was pretty good, HSV lost (you can decide whether that's a good thing or not) and I got to talk to some really interesting people. We also looked at setting up a little opportunity for me later in the year to go and spend some time working on a different project. If that comes through, it'll be a really interesting experience and something that I'm looking forward to.Part of me feels that I'm being choked a bit in Hamburg...and spending my time in the city has left me wanting to escape. Which is why I'm off to visit Kiel tomorrow. It's only an hour or so up the road and was one of the places that I had on my mental list of places to visit during the year, so I'm looking forward to that.I mentioned in the last entry that podcasting was about to begin....and it has with a little project called Trailing Thoughts, which you can find on iTunes (hehe, I'm on iTunes) and on the website (trailingthoughts.podbean.com). Currently, there's one episode done and another one is on the way either later tonight or tomorrow depending on when I finish editing and uploading. I'm really looking forward to seeing where I can take this over the coming weeks and months, as well as getting the opportunity to speak to some people that I haven't spoken to as well as hopefully talking to some friends about topics where they've got a story to tell and something to share. I got some really good feedback about the first episode about my plans and I've set up a couple of guests already... exciting things are happening.Must dash. I made brownies and they've been cooling as I write this. Time to go and stuff my face with chocolatey goodness. Enjoy your weekend.

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About Me

I'm a German student at the University of Leeds.
Like everyone else, I'm on a journey through life. On this blog, I'll write about good things, bad things and random thoughts and ideas that I have in my head. Whether you read every single entry I write, or just read select entries, I hope you enjoy reading them and get to know a little bit about me.